The stakes had been raised, and so Jacob and Two Rivers decided to go on a scouting mission to see what they were up against. They set out before dawn the next morning. Cassius stayed behind to keep watch over their cabin. The two scouts spoke not a word as they rode out. Jacob’s heart was pounding so hard that it was threatening to leap right out of his chest. Two Rivers felt just as calm as the day is long. He had faced far more perilous foes than Jones before. He had also seen so much death in his life that that the thought of dying was no longer a troubling one for him. If anything, it was a comforting one, as death would be for him a release from the ghosts that haunted him.
They came upon the Jones plantation just as dawn broke over the horizon. They hugged the treeline closely to avoid detection. This was not easy, as a great many trees had been cut down to build the many structures that now lay before them. Rows upon rows of mostly empty houses were laid out close to where the forest once stood. Beside that were many barns and storehouses. A steady stream of slaves brought in bags of meal and cured meat. Off to the far corner was a slave shantytown that looked as if it were tacked on as an afterthought. To the south were fields of corn and wheat that stretched as far as the eye could see. To the north cattle and horses grazed themselves upon the prairie. In the center of it all the Jones family mansion rose up like a medieval manor. At its top was an observation tower where the unblinking eye of Master Jones watched over them all.
Jacob and Two Rivers saw many sad eyes of slaves going out into the fields to take in the autumn harvest. They saw many crooked crosses that stood as a49 testament to just how many of them had been worked to death. They saw many hard eyes of overseers who held whips and guns to testify that here they were the lords of life and death. They saw a blight upon the land that stretched further and further with each passing day. They saw a group of overseers saddling horses, and decided that now would be a prudent time to return lest they be discovered by the patrol riders.
As the pair of scouts rode back, they tried to make sense of what they saw. Two Rivers spoke first.“This is not good my friend. We are already outnumbered, and they are preparing for a heavy settlement. With that many houses and that much food, and as much gold as that damn Jones has, he will not have any problem convincing many people to move here. And they will all be in his pocket.”
Jacob, his heart weighing heavy, spoke second. “This place is an abomination in the eyes of God.”Two Rivers could not help but laugh at his friend’s religiosity. “Why is that? Because they keep slaves, right?”
Jacob shook his head. “No, it is more than just that. They think they own this land. They are trying to conquer it. When my people come, we must seek to live with the land, not just on it. We will need you to show us the way, Brother Two Rivers. For nobody owns this land, nobody ever can. This is God’s country, all of it. The land does not belong to us, we belong to the land.”
Two Rivers could scarcely believe that he had just heard such wisdom from a man nearly half his age. On the night he met Jacob, he had begun to suspect that all white men were not the same. Now he knew this to be true. He looked over to his friend and gave voice to his revelation.
“Well I’ll be damned. I never met a white man who believed in the Great Father before.”They rode the rest of the way in silence, for no more words were necessary. But things would never be the same between them again. Never again would Two Rivers regard Jacob’s God with suspicion, for now he knew that Jacob’s God and his own were one and the same.
